It was a day we'd rather forget, but would do well to remember. With our whole defensive unit out with this illness going around, and with other players not recovered from it, it was going to be tough. However, with players being forced into other positions as cover, it tore apart all the good work we've done lately in formation work. However, we did try to run straight at them from the start, but their much-improved midfield bossed us from the off, and the gaps in defence were widely evident. They soon saw the gaps and swiftly converted 2 chances from 2 errors. A few mintes later, a third was gifted to them and they knew they could take us apart with high, long balls, coupled with basic 1-2 plays. Our forwards began to come back to help and therefore our attacking options became totally limited. Somehow, they turned one of our attacks into a counter attack and four of them were arguing over who would slot past a helpess keeper, completely on his own. Then they did it again.

    This carried on in the second half, with heads completely down except for Marcus and Sam. Within seconds we pushed forward and so nearly converted 3 chances, but then the gaps appeared again and they scored an easy, silly goal. Bailey came on for Luke, Owen for Harry and Jack for Liam. Suddenly, our back line began to gel better, with James commanding the defence and our novices chasing down every ball. Jack was pushing forward and slotting balls forward-which helped a couple of close chances. They scored but we had some more left in the engine room and drove forward, with Lucaas suddenly alight and Marcus and Alex combining behind Thomas' crafty skills and we got the ball in the net, only for it to be ruled offside. Tom played some neat balls forward, as did Lucaas, but we were now too deep in our half again and could not muster any sort of response to the dominance of a very neat Hellenic Team. 7-0 loss at home-the worst ever result for us here.

    An awful day at the office, and the wholly uncharacteristic silence at the end of the game showed what we felt. The only bright spots were Marcus' passion, Sam's amazing saves, and our novices' playing their hearts out. We must dust ourselves down, get fit again, and show our next opponents that we haven't lost the Gold Spirit.

    

    Thanks to all the parents and friends for their great help, our sponsors for their support and our Christmas Party, to Raunds Manor for their help, and finally to Gordon Huxtable and the Corby Hellenic team for a good game and good sportsmanship. A pleasure to play them.